Difficulties for indigenous students to remain in the English Teaching major in Campus Coto

Abstract

This study shows a situation presented to students from the indigenous population of the English teaching major of Campus Coto. These students managed to access university education; however, according to the interviews conducted and what was observed statistically in previous years, this population is not able to go successfully through the major. In some cases, they fail to pass the first course that is received from the English language (in this case integrated English 1); as a result, students decide to defect temporarily or permanently. Similarly, the percentage of students who manage to conclude with the major is low. Due to the previous facts, this research aimed to find out what the most significant factor was, which causes students of the indigenous population not to finish, drop or continuously repeat courses of the English teaching major. Besides having to overcome the challenge of moving away from their territories, these students face a cultural clash between their indigenous language, Spanish, and the language to acquire, in this case, English. Likewise, records were analyzed to know about how many students were admitted to the major mentioned before, as well as the possible changes of students to other majors were examined. In this case, the English teaching major has been transformed into one of the most challenging objectives for the indigenous population of the area.